Tag Archives: heating

More families are needing help to pay for heating as winter approaches

Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Utility companies warn of rising prices, natural gas shortage
  • We are not anticipating the need for controlled outages at this time. While prudent power system operations requires working with our partners at the utilities and government agencies to discuss and plan for the worst case scenario, these situations are rare,” said ISO in a statement.
  • That doesn’t solve the problem of rising prices.
  • Brenda Watson is Executive Director of Operation Fuel.
  • They help families with energy bills.
  • Their next cycle of grants starts in December, but they’ve already seen higher interest and they gave out quite a bit more than usual their last cycle, which ended last month.
  • “We went over our budget by nearly 800,000 dollars, and we are concerned what the next few months are going to bring.”
  • “Fuel dealers are asking us to increase the grant amount because $5,000 isn’t filling up tanks with the price of fuel being what it is,” said Watson.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Trouble ahead as National Economic Director says we only have 25 days left of Diesel

Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • The US now has just 25 days of diesel supply — the lowest since 2008. Here’s why that’s more alarming than a dwindling ‘oil piggy bank’
  • The U.S. is facing a diesel crunch just as demand is surging ahead of winter — with only 25 days of supply left, according to the Energy Information Administration.
  • National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told Bloomberg TV that diesel inventories are “unacceptably low” and “all options are on the table” to bolster supply and reduce prices.
  • New England’s stockpiles have been depleted to less than a third of its usual levels for this time of year, which is concerning since those states rely on fuel for heating more than other parts of the country.
  • But The Washington Post reports that diesel demand is so high, that if a million barrels of diesel were delivered from the Northeast reserves, they would be depleted in less than six hours.
  • The Biden administration also recently announced it would be tapping into the country’s emergency oil reserves to counter rising gas prices, despite concerns over the long-term efficacy.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Echoes of WWII in Berlin as fuel in such short supply people are stockpiling wood and other obscure fuels

Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Europeans are hoarding wood, cleaning chimneys, and mulling horse dung as winter looms in an energy crisis
  • Prices for wood pellets have nearly doubled to 600 euros a ton in France, and there are signs of panic buying of the world’s most basic fuel. Hungary even went so far as to ban exports of pellets, and Romania capped firewood prices for six months. Meanwhile, wood stoves can now take months to deliver.
  • Customers are inquiring about burning horse dung and other obscure fuels.
  • Strapped households across the region are increasingly faced with choosing between heating and other essentials.
  • Peter Engelke is putting up a new security gate at his warehouse because of concerns about desperate people pilfering his stock. The precious asset at risk is firewood.
  • In Berlin, the crisis creates unsettling echoes of the desolation following World War II. With fuel in short supply, residents chopped down nearly all the trees in the central Tiergarten Park for heating.

Read the original article by clicking here.

China warns of second wave of snow after blizzard alert lifted

: A Chinese flag is seen in front of the Friendship bridge over the Yalu River connecting the North Korean town of Sinuiju and Dandong in China's Liaoning Province on April 1, 2017.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China warned of a second wave of snow and sleet hitting northern, central and eastern parts on Friday after record snowfall paralyzed parts of the country in the most severe weather this winter.

Heavy snowfall has wreaked havoc in central and eastern China since Tuesday, killing 10 people and disrupting the lives of more than half a million people in five provinces, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Agriculture has also been hit, with economic losses amounting to 510 million yuan ($79 million) so far.

The National Meteorological Centre lifted a blizzard alert, but said light to moderate snowfall was expected to sweep across much of the north between Friday and Sunday.

Snow has disrupted public transport and energy supplies, damaged power lines and shut roads, airports and schools in parts of central China.

All power in Suizhou, a small city of 2.5 million people in the north of central Hubei province, was down due to heavy snow, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

Temperatures in Suizhou are expected to plunge as low as minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday.

Hubei, which does not have central heating infrastructure unlike northern provinces, has seen a spike in electricity consumption for heating, according to CCTV.

On Thursday, at least three airports were shut and nine were experiencing extensive delays because of heavy snowfall.

As of 0630 GMT on Friday, all airports in China were open, and only three airports faced delays, according to Chinese aviation data provider VariFlight.

Several high-speed trains from Shanghai and Beijing were also delayed or canceled on Thursday, and highways in the provinces of Jiangsu, Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei have also been closed off, the China Daily reported.

The ceilings of several bus stations in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, had collapsed as a result of snow, resulting in at least one death, the newspaper said. The province saw a record 30 cm (12 inches) of snow on Thursday.

The roof of a factory in Xiangyang, also in Hubei province, collapsed, trapping five people, and traffic in the city ground to a halt, according to the state broadcaster, China National Radio.

CCTV footage on Friday also showed collapsed roofs of factories in Henan and Anhui provinces.

By contrast, Beijing has been dry, with many parts of northern China experiencing little to no snowfall.

(Reporting by David Stanway in SHANGHAI and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Judy Hua, Ryan Woo, Brenda Goh and Zhang Min; Editing by Nick Macfie)